Months after quitting the Great British Bake-Off ahead of its switch to Channel 4, lovable on-screen duo Mel and Sue have been rewarded for their loyalty to the BBC with co-hosting roles on the revamp of the classic game show The Generation Game.

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The show has been commissioned for a four-episode run, though an air date is yet to be set. The reboot will combine classic aspects of the series with new games.

A new version of The Generation Game has been in the works since 2014, but originally Miranda Hart was slated to host. The star is said to have filmed a pilot shortly after The Miranda Hart Show came to an end, but appears to have chosen to shift her focus towards writing and acting instead.

This left the door open for Mel and Sue, who had been looking for a new TV project to work on together since the end of Bake-Off.

"I'm very hopeful Mel and I will do some pratting about, but I couldn't tell you exactly what yet. Possibly some prime-time pratting," Sue Perkins told Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs earlier this month.

The Generation Game ran from 1971-2002 on the BBC, with Sir Bruce Forsyth serving as host between 1971-77 and 1990-94.

The show pits pairs of inter-generational family members against one another, as they face-off in performance and task based games, before heading to the iconic conveyor belt where they watch prizes whizz by and attempt to remember every one.

The pairs will begin the show in the studio audience, and will only find out which games they are participating in when Mel and Sue announce this at the beginning of the show.

A panel of celebrity judges will be on hand to decide who gets to move on to the decisive conveyor belt stage.

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Can the comedic duo bring the game show to a new generation? The warm reception the Crystal Maze revival has received is certainly a reason for optimism.

Authors

Ben AllenOn Demand Writer, RadioTimes.com
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